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A Fashion Buyer’s Role in the 21st Century: A Data-Mining-Based Content

Analysis Approach

Conference Paper · November 2018

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International Textile and Apparel Association
2018: Re-Imagine the Re-Newable
(ITAA) Annual Conference Proceedings

Jan 1st, 12:00 AM

A Fashion Buyer’s Role in the 21st Century: A

Data-Mining-Based Content Analysis Approach
Md. Rafiqul Islam Rana
University of Missouri, mrana@mail.missouri.edu

Li Zhao
University of Missouri, zhaol1@missouri.edu

Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/itaa_proceedings

Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, and the Fashion Business Commons

Rana, Md. Rafiqul Islam and Zhao, Li, "A Fashion Buyer’s Role in the 21st Century: A Data-Mining-Based Content Analysis Approach"
(2018). International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) Annual Conference Proceedings. 35.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/itaa_proceedings/2018/presentations/35

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2018 Proceedings Cleveland, Ohio

A Fashion Buyer’s Role in the 21st Century: A Data-Mining-Based Content Analysis

Approach
Md. Rafiqul Islam Rana and Li Zhao, University of Missouri, USA
Keywords: fashion buyer, 21st century, skillset, data mining, concept map

Fashion buyers play an integral role in the development and commercial success of a fashion
brand or company (Berman & Evans, 2012). The buying and merchandising team within a
fashion retailer are a critical value-creating resource as they are responsible for key elements of
the marketing mix (Varley, 2014). The fashion buyers’ role is discussed by few authors
(Goworek, 2007). The role differs significantly between companies based on market position,
label/branded product, company size, product category and business model (Varley, 2014).
However, with the growing need of 21st century skills and sustainability, incorporating this
knowledge and implementing it in all aspects of fashion buying is a neglected area of academic
research (Goworek, 2010; Clark, 2014) and therefore a gap within the literature exits. Arbuthnot
et al., (1993) concurs and states that retail buyer behavior is a little researched area and the
existing literature focuses mainly on areas of industrial buying and consumer buying behavior.
Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze the current fashion buying roles that are presently
required in the industry and compare them with the 21st century skill sets that are required for
achieving sustainability within the fashion buying workplace.
The theory used to achieve the research goal is P21’s Framework. P21's Framework for 21st
Century Learning has defined and illustrated the skills and knowledge students and future
professionals need to succeed in work, life and citizenship (P21, 2018). It has been used by
thousands of educators and industry professionals in the U.S. and abroad to put 21st century
skills at the center of learning. According to P21 (2018), there are twelve 21st century skills that
are grouped into three main categories: (a) Learning skills [critical thinking, creativity,
collaboration, communication]; (b) Literacy skills [information literacy, media literacy,
technology literacy]; (c) Life skills [flexibility, leadership, initiative, productivity, social skills].
Learning skills teach students and future professionals about the mental processes required to
adapt and improve upon a modern work environment. Literacy skills focus on how students and
future professionals can discern facts, publishing outlets, and the technology behind them. Life
skills take a look at intangible elements of a student’s and future professional’s everyday life
focusing on both personal and professional qualities. These skillsets are necessary among fashion
buyers to be able to attain company goals more efficiently, and sustainably.
Data-mining-based content analysis was conducted in this research. Data mining is an innovative
process of discovering concepts, themes and patterns in large data sets (Han et al., 2001).
Researchers have used content analysis successfully to explore job responsibilities and
requirements of particular personnel (Muhammad & Ha-Brookshire, 2011). In this study, job
advertisements posted on Indeed.com were crawled and analyzed for the descriptions of job
duties and required or preferred knowledge and skills. Indeed.com was selected because it is one
of the largest job listing site on the internet and provides relevant and important information on

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© 2018, International Textile and Apparel Association, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ITAA Proceedings, #75 – http://itaaonline.org
2018 Proceedings Cleveland, Ohio

the desired qualifications and requirements for various personnel in the fashion industry. A total
of 677 fashion-buying jobs were collected by data mining algorithm in Python, using the search
keyword “fashion buyer” on February 25, 2018. Out of those, 228 were removed from the data
set due to repeated posting, lack of detailed description and buying positions that were not
related to fashion industry. Therefore, 449 job advertisements were used for the final data
analysis. A text data analytical tool named Leximancer was used to develop the concept map
among the collected text data (Figure. 1) and analyze the word frequency related to 21st century
skills.
The results of this study are noteworthy.
First, terms like “critical thinking”,
“creativity”, “collaboration”, “teamwork”
and “communication” were present 1610
times across all the job postings which
shows the current demand and need for
Learning skills in the fashion-buying roles.
Second, terms like “information”, “social
media”, “computer literacy”, “MS office”,
“software’s” and “technology” were present
962 times across all the job postings which
shows the current demand and need for
Literacy skills in the fashion-buying roles.
Finally, terms like “flexibility”, “adaptable”,
“leadership”, “initiative”, “productivity”,
“customer skills” and “relations” were
present 866 times across all the job postings
which shows the demand and need for Life
Figure. 1: Concept map of fashion buyer role skills in the fashion-buying roles.

The results illustrate the current demand and need of 21st Century skills in the fashion-buying
role. Although the framework given by P21 was in general, it seems to have significant
implications for fashion industry, too. Notably, the most prominent skillset that was present in
the fashion buyer job posting is the Learning skills which means that current industry needs more
creativity, innovative thinking, and critical thinking ability among professionals so that they
could address societal, environmental, and technological challenges more efficiently. To the best
of our knowledge, this study is one of the very few that adopted the computational data mining
and concept map development approach in fashion buying research. The results help fashion
professionals, educators, students, and job seekers to get a better picture of which skillsets to
develop so that they could be industry-ready and face the 21st century challenges. Future research
is recommended to investigate the need of 21st century skillsets in fashion-buying role globally
and why fashion industries are diving more into these skillsets and how it transforms the fashion
industry to achieve sustainability goals.
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© 2018, International Textile and Apparel Association, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ITAA Proceedings, #75 – http://itaaonline.org
 2018 Proceedings Cleveland, Ohio

References

Arbuthnot, J. J., Slama, M., & Sisler, G. (1993). Selection criteria and information sources in the
purchase decisions of apparel buyers of small retailing firms. Journal of Small Business
Management, 31(2), 12-13.

Berman B.R. & Evans, J.R. (2003). Retail Management: A Strategic Approach (9th ed.). Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Clark, J. & Nobbs, K. (2012). Identifying the strategic significance of the fashion merchandiser:
Balancing art and science. EAISM Fashion Management Conference, June 25th-26th,
London 2012.

Goworek, H. (2007). Fashion Buying (2nd ed.). Oxford Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Goworek, H. (2010). An investigation into product development processes for UK fashion

retailers: A multiple case study. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 14(4),
648 – 662.

Han, J. & Kamber, M. (2001). Data mining: concepts and techniques. Morgan Kaufmann. p. 5

Muhammad, A. J., & Ha-Brookshire, J. E. (2011). Exploring job responsibilities and

requirements of US textile and apparel sourcing personnel. Journal of Fashion Marketing
and Management: An International Journal, 15(1), 41–57.

P21, (2018). Framework for 21st Century Learning. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/our-
work/p21-framework

Varley, R (2014). Retail Product Management (3rd ed.). Oxford Routledge.

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ITAA Proceedings, #75 – http://itaaonline.org

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